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Wondering how many commercial products have been jeopardised by this freeware sponsored by a corporation, and how many jobs have been put at risk?

WilliamEdward 7y ago
But how many jobs does it create?
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
reitzensteinm 7y ago
Unlike others here (based on the downvotes), I don't think your concerns are entirely unfounded. Google is a classic example of a company that scorches the earth with their freeware releases - remember Kiko? But ultimately, whatever is best for the consumer needs to win out. If freeware knocks out commercial competitors then stagnates (like Internet Explorer), that's bad, and analogous to dumping which is not legal. If it's just better product and continues to be, like Google Calendar, the world is simply better off.
- ossworkerrights 7y ago
  Right, same goes for google. Remember folks, free software and free products means you are the product. And in the process other companies and tools are being put of business while the masses cheers for yet another free tool, forgetting these are made by monopolies that use them as marketing.
  - soylentgraham 7y ago
    You're confusing google (an advertising company) for unity (a product store). They're not trying to acquire users for marketing, they're trying to acquire users into their ecosystem and bring more dependence on their tools, their asset store products, and make the unity ecosystem worth more. It's a land grab. Ditto for VFX industry that they and Epic are trying to get into.
    - ossworkerrights 7y ago
      Hopefully it's not the same kind of land grab, where a large company will "nick" successful products off of their asset store and release them "free of charge".
pferde 7y ago
Nobody seems to be bothered by this kind of argument when it comes to music publishing industry being disrupted by new technology, why is this any different? The world is not here to ensure your business model can continue uninterrupted in perpetuity. The world moves forwards (well, mostly forwards), and it is up to you to adapt your business model accordingly.
pixelpoet 7y ago
Pretty much all commercial archviz oriented 3D rendering software (where I've spent the last 10 years) continues to feel the heat from such efforts, including Blender and all the support it gets these days from AMD and Nvidia. Don't understand why you're getting so harshly downvoted.
- kaffeemitsahne 7y ago
  Didn't vote but I simply don't see how it is a bad thing when free software competes with commercial software. Something that used to cost money can now be done for free, sounds great to me.
- ossworkerrights 7y ago
  I dont really understand it either. Whats is happening is that some giants give out “free” software, kill their competition and then monetise in other ways (personal data, or cross selling other products), while in some cases they make use of open source products to sell services. Either way the only win is a lousy 9-5 job for programmers who write the freeware, or loss of jobs for those developed the code commercially. Basically open source for non mission critical software is digging one’s own grave.

WilliamEdward 7y ago

But how many jobs does it create?

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

reitzensteinm 7y ago

Unlike others here (based on the downvotes), I don't think your concerns are entirely unfounded. Google is a classic example of a company that scorches the earth with their freeware releases - remember Kiko? But ultimately, whatever is best for the consumer needs to win out. If freeware knocks out commercial competitors then stagnates (like Internet Explorer), that's bad, and analogous to dumping which is not legal. If it's just better product and continues to be, like Google Calendar, the world is simply better off.

ossworkerrights 7y ago
Right, same goes for google. Remember folks, free software and free products means you are the product. And in the process other companies and tools are being put of business while the masses cheers for yet another free tool, forgetting these are made by monopolies that use them as marketing.
- soylentgraham 7y ago
  You're confusing google (an advertising company) for unity (a product store). They're not trying to acquire users for marketing, they're trying to acquire users into their ecosystem and bring more dependence on their tools, their asset store products, and make the unity ecosystem worth more. It's a land grab. Ditto for VFX industry that they and Epic are trying to get into.
  - ossworkerrights 7y ago
    Hopefully it's not the same kind of land grab, where a large company will "nick" successful products off of their asset store and release them "free of charge".

pferde 7y ago

Nobody seems to be bothered by this kind of argument when it comes to music publishing industry being disrupted by new technology, why is this any different? The world is not here to ensure your business model can continue uninterrupted in perpetuity. The world moves forwards (well, mostly forwards), and it is up to you to adapt your business model accordingly.

pixelpoet 7y ago

Pretty much all commercial archviz oriented 3D rendering software (where I've spent the last 10 years) continues to feel the heat from such efforts, including Blender and all the support it gets these days from AMD and Nvidia. Don't understand why you're getting so harshly downvoted.

kaffeemitsahne 7y ago
Didn't vote but I simply don't see how it is a bad thing when free software competes with commercial software. Something that used to cost money can now be done for free, sounds great to me.
ossworkerrights 7y ago
I dont really understand it either. Whats is happening is that some giants give out “free” software, kill their competition and then monetise in other ways (personal data, or cross selling other products), while in some cases they make use of open source products to sell services. Either way the only win is a lousy 9-5 job for programmers who write the freeware, or loss of jobs for those developed the code commercially. Basically open source for non mission critical software is digging one’s own grave.